avocado8

The Perfect Solution

We've been looking for (a) something to go in the "Christmas tree corner" of the living room, near the sliding glass door—preferably either a lamp or something that would hold a lamp; and (b) a place to store all my cameras, camera accessories, and film.

Enter the Pottery Barn Outlet in Lancaster, PA.

Al and I had split up to shop/watch the Beaner, and when we synced up again, he mentioned seeing a couple pieces of furniture in the Pottery Barn Outlet: one, a telephone table that might work as a camera/film storage unit, and another that might fill the corner in the living room.

I don't know why, but when he mentioned that the second item had drawers, I immediately knew it was The One without looking at it. We'd originally thought that I'd store my cameras and film in the dining room, since that's close to the front door, but I didn't see any reason we couldn't store them in the living room if this unit could hold everything. He mentioned that it was kind of expensive, but I thought to myself, "I bet it's cheaper than the price on the tag. I'll find out."

I spotted the thing immediately upon heading toward the furniture side of the store, and my hunch that it was The One was confirmed. The right color, the right size drawers, everything. I was willing to pay the price on the tag (already down about 40% from the original list price of $EXORBITANT), but I looked around for some sign that it was cheaper, and found one: 50% OFF LOWEST PRICE ON ALL BEDROOM FURNITURE. Since this was listed as a dresser, it counted.

The only question now was: Would it fit in the car? On the advice of the employee from whom I borrowed a measuring tape, I took the tag off the dresser before going out to measure the car. "If the tag's not on it, nobody else can buy it. You need the tag." I then measured the trunk of the car from every angle I could think of, but it wasn't clear that the thing would fit. I called on Al's superior measuring and spacial skills, giving him the measuring tape and going back to stand guard over the dresser.

While I was standing there, a woman came up to inspect it. I said, "um, I think we're going to buy this. My husband's just checking if it will fit in the car." She looked at me with the surprise and confidence of an SUV driver and said, "oh, it'll fit. It's not that big." Me: "Neither is the car." And we get better gas mileage than you, too, beyotch.

While waiting and praying that the thing would fit, I glanced down at the tag and noticed that the item code ended with these magical characters: 4CHO. Logically, I knew what they stood for (4-drawer chocolate dresser), but even more than the 50% off sign, THIS seemed to be the sign that this purchase was MEANT TO BE.

When Al returned, shaking his head and saying, "I don't think it will fit," I showed him the tag. "It says 4CHO, honey. It's meant to be. It's FOR US." Suddenly, I swear I could see a lightbulb pop on over Al's head. "I know how to make it fit," he said. "We can fold the seat down." Why this hadn't occurred to us before, I don't know—probably because we think of the backseat as Unfoldable Beaner Territory—but our seats do, indeed, fold down in a 60-40 split. All we had to do was move the car seat to the other side, and bingo.

I ran to the register, and the rest is history. We now have a perfect solution to my camera/film storage problem, a place for the gardening supplies I use most, a lovely lamp stand, and a piece that matches the rest of our living room. And the location has turned out to be perfect: I can step in and grab the 10D whenever I want to document the garden, and I always bring it back to its spot in the dresser when I'm done downloading photos. There's something about knowing it has a place that keeps it from languishing on my desk.

I always know where the cameras are now. I can keep an eye on my film stock and know when it's getting low. And of course, the gardening supplies being right next to the back deck is absolutely perfect. I was leaving them in that corner anyway; now, they're hidden from view, and the living room looks much neater. I couldn't be happier.

Polaroid drawer

35mm drawer

digital drawer

gardening drawer